So what do we teach ?

The four main parts to HKIS Lower Primary Art Education are:

· Investigating and making

· Understanding the Arts in context

· Exploring and developing ideas

· Evaluating and Interpreting work

What do your children actually do in the art room?

Well I can tell you that your children arrive in art extremely exited every single week, ready to learn and eager to find out more...

They get to use all kinds of exciting art materials, and learn a carefully crafted sequence  of processes which enables them to build very solid skills  throughout their 3 year art journey!  

Many units are directly linked to classroom learning in Social Studies, Science and Religious studies in order to reinforce and deepen students learning in these areas and to provide relevant contexts for their art learning. Every project takes place over a few cycles and builds a wide range of skills from sketching to painting or from building to reflecting and talking about artwork.

The art lessons will incorporate discussion times when question and answer techniques are used to formatively assess student learning as well as to provoke thoughtfulness and a sense of curiosity about the topics. We call this ‘art thinking’  and ‘art seeing’ both of which are taught alongside art making.

Students will be taught care of tools, materials and how to work in and how to clean the art room.

Grade level over view for 2016-17

R2

R2 students will start the year studying colour through all kinds of experiments and stories and they create of a colour wheel. Learning points include the concept that the primary colours lead to the creation of all other colours and shades.They experiment themselves to see just how many greens or purples they can make.

This is followed by a wonderful study in our LP garden, including a series of nature walks in which we will collect sketches and patterns found in our outdoor environment.

R2 children are learning that we can get our art ideas from our memory our imagination and our eyes ( observation).

Alongside our wonderful artist Francesco Lietti R2 students will be involved in the creation of a Hong Kong landscape which is created in layers enabling children to appreciate the notion of background, middle ground and foreground. They will then create a collaged Hong Kong skyline and other important buildings. This links directly to classroom project learning about Hong Kong the skyline and local temples.

Lastly they will be extending their pattern making and design skills they are studying butterflies this team and will use butterfly markings at the basis for their own designing and printmaking project. 

Grade 1

Grade 1 students start the year by studying an Artist, this year they will using the life and work of Gustav Klimt to  learn how to study an artist, find his magic tricks and then create their own artwork in response to that. They will learn how to use sketching to learn about an artwork and then how to translate that into a painting. This will be created on a canvas using the main learning points of the artist.

Students will then be studying Lifecycles in their classroom, alongside that study we will be using our investigation skills to look very closely at the structure of flowers. We will take some flowers apart and discover how we might start structure and design our own.
Students will then have an opportunity to work with our artist Francesco Lietti this year working on an aspect Hong Kong's vibrant landscape.

Lastly the art unit will reflect the classroom study of Islam and Grade 1 students will be studying Islamic architecture and ensign, specifically towers, minarets and doorways, they will create their own imaginative Islamic skylines using pen and ink. As well developing the magical techniques of using printmaking to create repeating patterns using islamic mosque tiles as inspiration.

Grade 2

Grade 2 begin the year with a study of lines and patterns, the key concept is learning how to generate patterns and designs, this is then applied to creation of a large circular mandala.
This is followed by a study of Hong Kong habitats which links to the classroom learning in science, we will be studying the amazing diversity of insects in the Hong Kong environment. We will use Hong Kong beetles as the basis for creating our very own insects using paper, wire armatures and paint.
Grade 2 students will also have the opportunity to work on a collaborative mural project with our artist Francesco Lietti this year. Before we embark upon our wonderful artist study in which each class gets to study one particular artist and their techniques then replicate those on an unusual surface! This will culminate in our Pop Up artshow in the garden, watch this space!!